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I don't think there is a "Work Smarter" solution because the madness of ego and whatever else goes into making you work for free like that is likely an affliction that has no intelligence. Thankfully, the dog only occasionally got jealous of the laptops getting all the attention.

There are times that I think that some day, in the not terribly distant future, we're going to look back and wonder what the hell we were smoking to have burnt the prime of our lives on something so unimportant in the grand scheme

There are times that I think that some day, in the not terribly distant future, we're going to look back and wonder what the hell we were smoking to have burnt the prime of our lives on something so unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

Well, yes! The whole reason your contributions (and those of other people like Jarkko and you) are noteworthy are because they're exceptional--disproportionate to the norm, the commonly-accepted right amount of effort for the benefits. When you move on in your life, it's almost inevitable that you'll look back and go "boy, that was a ridiculous amount of effort."

If it's any help, I think George Bernard Shaw's quote applies here:

"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people."

Since we're in the quoting mood, I think that these lines from a nice poem ("Berryman," by W.S. Merwin, from Flower & Hand (Copper Canyon Press).) featured today on Garrison Keillor's excellent Writer's Almanac [writersalmanac.org] are appropriate:

don't lose your arrogance yet he saidyou can do that when you're olderlose it too soon and you maymerely replace it with vanity

It may be arrogant to assume, in the great scheme of things, that any progress is being made, but pleas

"There are no grades of vanity, there are only grades of ability in concealing it." -- Twain

One must assume that progress is being made lest we be reminded that meaning and meaninfulness are vastly different things as we stand tired and alone holding an empty cup. I like Mr. Twain not only because he is a Missourian like myself and Give 'em Hell Harry, but also because he doesn't sugarcoat reality. I like W.S. Merwin
but he's a bit too flowery for my taste and my pondering more than 3 years to the chipper for something that, in internet time, will be all but forgotten in the blink of an eye. Pity we aren't stone masons.